ATLANTA — A $2.5 million federal grant is being directed toward improving water quality tied to Lake Lanier after recent complaints about “earthy” smelling tap water across parts of metro Atlanta.

The Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center will use the funding to work with farmers upstream from Lake Lanier on ways to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff. Executive Director Mark Masters says the goal is to help farms adopt practices that limit pollution before it reaches the lake.

“The project will allow and assist farmers in installing best management practices on their farms to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution,” he said.

Masters says those practices could include fencing to keep livestock out of creeks, planting buffer strips around fields, or developing nutrient management plans. “Whatever the case may be for those individual farmers, we want to work with them and catalog all of those opportunities,” he said.

He adds that these efforts will support long-term water quality improvements. “It makes sense to put these practices in place, and ultimately it’s good for the water quality that all of the citizens around and near the lake enjoy,” he said.

The work comes after residents in portions of DeKalb and Fulton counties noticed changes in the smell and taste of their water, a shift some experts attribute in part to farm runoff and to a natural “turnover” process that stirs sediment from the bottom of Lake Lanier. The lake and the Chattahoochee River are the primary drinking water sources for most of metro Atlanta.

The grant is funded through the congressional budget bill that ended the nation’s longest government shutdown and will support the project for the next three years. Masters says the grant will help support long-term improvements. “Its going to allow us to ensure that we continue to improve water quality in Lake Lanier,” he said.

WSB Radio’s Jonathan O’Brien contributed to this story.